CoLu Week 2015
by rhosinthorn
Summary: The dumping ground for all of the CoLu Week 2015 prompts. 1. Language 2. Caged 3. Fairy Tale 4. Glitter 5. Rumors 6. Family 7. Journey.
1. 1 Language

_**Language:**_

"Just F*** _off_ ," Cobra growled as Natsu leapt at him for the tenth time that hour. "I'm not going to fight a numbskull like you. Come find me when you've figured out how to even land a hit."

Lucy felt a pang of sympathy for the dragon slayer as he sat at the bar, but at the moment she was babysitting Asuka. Her priorities were clear.

Covering the girl's ears as another profanity laden tirade filled the air due to Natsu's eleventh attack, Lucy waited for a break in the sentence before yelling: "Watch your LANGUAGE. There are CHILDREN here that don't need to hear that."

He glared at her. "I can think of one _brat_ that needs to hear it if it will get through his thick _skull_. So back off and let me handle this unless you want to do something about it."

Huffing in frustration, Lucy watched as the twelfth attack commenced. Having been Natsu's partner for years, she knew that he wouldn't stop until he was physically incapable of moving. Even Laxus was a victim of Natsu's constant pleas for fights, and he was the best at putting Natsu on the floor without exerting any effort at all. Cobra was more of an issue, since he couldn't use his magic without destroying large parts of his surroundings or hurting bystanders. _He at least has that amount of common courtesy_. However, being beaten in a simple hand to hand fight wasn't satisfying enough for Natsu. Not by a long run.

Seeing her open her mouth to start another tirade after his latest bout of swearing, Cobra glared at her. "Don't complain about it Blondie if you're not willing to do anything about it. If it bothers you so much, take the kid and go somewhere else."

Marching over to him, Lucy placed her hands on her hips and shouted back: "Call be my my _f******_ name dimwit! And if he's being a problem, _fix_ it!"

As she turned to walk away, she saw Asuka staring at her, eyes wide. Realization dawned, and she heard Cobra fall off his barstool laughing. Her chin held high, she marched over to Asuka, picked the girl up, and left the guild hall. They'd go for a paddle in the pool, where she could explain that such language was _only_ to be used by people who are both adults and extremely irritated. After that, she'd throw herself at Bisca and Alzack's feet and beg for forgiveness. She liked babysitting Asuka.

Hopefully her language error wouldn't take that away from her.

 *****Hi guys! Well, this is kinda short, but I thought it would be funny. It's partially inspired by some dialogue in** ** _Avengers: Age of Ultron_** **. Anyone who saw the movie would get the reference. As of right now, none of the stories are connected, and I'm exploring different takes on the relationship between these two, so they may get a bit odd at times. But I had a lot of fun writing them, so I hope you have fun reading!*****


	2. 2 Caged

**_Caged_**

To say that the relationship between Fairy Tail's resident Celestial Wizard and the ex-criminal Poison Dragon Slayer was odd was to put it lightly. Even Mira, matchmaker extraordinaire and creator of the weirdest pairings ever contemplated, didn't predict that relationship and couldn't begin to explain possible theories.

The biggest problem with the relationship between them was that they hardly seemed in a relationship at all. In fact, the only reason anyone knew at all was because a fanboy had been begging Lucy for a date and she ended up having to reveal the name of her _significant other_ to get him to leave her alone. Once glance at the dragon slayer skulking in his favorite corner of the guild had sent the poor boy running, and the nearby gossips had descended upon Lucy moments later. Of all of the questions that they threw at her, the only one that she would answer was the one about how long the two of them had been dating.

"Six months," she said, and then she walked out of the guild. According to Natsu and Happy, who followed her in hopes of interrogating her, the blonde simply entered her apartment and proceeded to bar every conceivable means of entry, including but not restricted to the gap under her door, her shower drain, the chimney, and the loose floorboard that could be pried up with a determined effort. How Natsu knew all this was beyond everyone, and when Lucy and Cobra refused to answer questions in the following days, the gossips settled down to observe the two. Cana opened a betting pool on various milestones in their relationship and did good business for quite a while.

However, the observations didn't yield much fruit, even after months of watching the pair interact. All of Fairy Tail could agree on three particular points that made it seem as if they weren't a couple at all.

First, and foremost, they never seemed to spend any _time_ together. The only times Lucy and Cobra were spotted in close proximity to each other was when they were at the guild, and even then, they were never really in the same spot. Cobra usually was skulking in his corner, where he claimed it was the quietest in the noisy guild, and Lucy was either chatting with Levy, or reading a book at the bar while she sipped on a strawberry milkshake. And you could forget about seeing them together outside the guild. After several stakeouts of the favorite date places in Magnolia as well as several discreet requests for information to knowledgeable persons in the community, the guild realized that the pair didn't spend time together _outside_ the guild either. Natsu willingly swore that Cobra had never been in Lucy's apartment, since he would smell it, and for months would pop in at the most unexpected moments, hoping to catch the two together. For heaven's sake, _they didn't even go on job requests together_. Even Elfman and Evergreen, who were adamantly _not dating_ would go on the occasional job together. But Lucy and Cobra seemed to remain independent of each other.

Secondly, when they did interact in public together, they were usually arguing. Most people in the guild were willing to bet that they couldn't go more than two sentences without arguing. Mira nearly cried in frustration when they ended up glaring at each other down the length of the bar. While she may not have predicted and orchestrated the Cobra-Lucy relationship, she was perfectly willing to get behind it and make it work. However, their near constant arguments seemed more like adversaries meeting than lovers. Plus there was no physical contact at all. Not even the tiniest public display of affection.

Thirdly, was that they would sometimes just _leave_. One of the two of them would just _disappear_ , and nobody would know until Cobra's corner would remain empty for a day, or Team Natsu would come bursting in, frantically searching for their blonde member. The first thought had been that they were together, but during each of these episodes, one of them could always be found at the guild or their home. When questioned about the whereabouts of the missing member of the relationship, whoever was left behind would simply shrug and return to what they were doing. This lack of concern infuriated Team Natsu particularly, and during Lucy's first disappearance Laxus was a hairsbreadth from ordering Freed to trap Erza, Natsu, and Grey in runes and leave them there until she returned. When the missing person would return, a few days later, unscathed and unruffled, the only excuse they would provide would be "I felt like taking a trip.

Compounding all of this was that neither of them would _talk_. There was no girlish gossip in the baths from Lucy or man-to-man conversations with Cobra. It was quite literally _impossible_ to get information about the two, and Cana was starting to lose money on her betting pool after a year and a half of the relationship being out in the open. When the damage was getting too big to ignore, she began to plan. Careful to stay away from Cobra, she gathered the girls at Fairy Hills, making sure that Lucy was significantly later in arriving than the others. After her explanation, she opened her betting pool for the final time, closing it just before Lucy arrived. The trap was set and baited.

Two hours later, the truth serum was beginning to take hold.

To be honest, Cana would have preferred to use alcohol. But after a bad night at the guild during one of the infamous parties, Lucy had sworn off the stuff. Getting her drunk and prying information out of her was out of the question. Hence the need for truth serum. It was a lot more difficult of an information gathering method, requiring the dosage to be carefully administered so that the target was able to provide the information while preventing them from noticing the drug in their drink. But the card mage's patience was paying off, and she figured she was about to hit the jackpot. Quite literally. There was a lot of money riding on her bets, and since she had done a reading before she placed them, she was pretty confident in her guessing.

"So Lucy," she said, after some gentle interrogation of Levy about the bluenette's relationship with Gajeel, just to set the tone. "When are you going to tell us about you and tall, dark, and reptilian?"

"Never," the blonde chimed, which was a more comprehensive response than they usually got. Looks like Cana didn't need to spike the blonde's drink anymore. "We don't need all of you poking around in our business."

"So there's an _our_ to this? To be honest, it doesn't really seem like you two are actually a couple." Lisanna asked the follow up question, trying to keep the blonde talking before she realized that she was spilling information to a group that made hungry sharks look tame.

Waving her hand, Lucy smiled. "Oh, we're definitely a couple. But we don't need to do all the stuff that you guys want us to do, because it's just not _us_. And again, you're all pretty nosy."

"So what do you do?" Levy asked curiously, eyes wide. Cana shot the bluenette a glare, knowing that her question was motivated by a desire to move her own relationship with Gajeel out of the spotlight.

"All sorts of stuff, whenever we can shake you guys." Lucy provided vaguely. "But I don't want to talk about that."

Realizing that pressing at that exact moment would alert the blonde that there was something else going on, Cana changed her questioning. "What about all the arguing? You guys can't seem to hold a civil conversation."

"We hold plenty of conversations," Lucy said, chuckling at some memory. "But we don't argue. It's more like a debate. The two of us…we like to voice our opinions. No…" she said quietly, lost in thought. "More like we _need_ to."

Letting that juicy tidbit slide for the moment, Cana pressed on. "And why the random trips? It's not like you two go together. From what I can tell, you don't even tell each other when you're going."

Lucy's eyes went a little hazy, and her hand wave was less precise. "It's about just _leaving_. Waking up and deciding to just _go_. Having that ability, the choice. Choice is important. That's why we debate too. Choice."

Cana frowned, realizing that she may have misjudged the amount of truth serum Lucy would need. _Looks like I need to press a bit harder if I want to get the information I need_. "What's so important about choice? I mean, we're a part of Fairy Tail. Doing whatever we want is kind of our thing."

"Corset strings are prettier, but they're just like literal chains, you know?" Lucy mused, and Cana traded glances with Mira. The blonde was going downhill faster than they had predicted, especially since she was now getting strange and slightly philosophical. _Damn it_.

"I mean, a bird in a gilded cage is still just as trapped as the one in barbed wire and electric fences," Lucy rambled. "Not that the gilded cage is any comparison to the other…that one I wouldn't let anyone stay in. But both make choice so precious. We can't live without it, either one of us…"

A knock at the door sounded, and then it opened, revealing a stony faced dragon slayer. Moving deliberately, he scooped up Lucy and turned back towards the door, pausing only to say: "Tell your conspirator that truth serum is a poison too."

Cana at least had the grace to look surprised as the door closed behind the two.

As Cobra slipped through the woods towards the rundown little cabin that only the two of them knew about, he mentally saluted the card mage for her execution. If it weren't for the Soul Link he and Lucy had, her plan might have worked. Bickslow's attempt however had been doomed to fail from the start. He had only gone through with it to see what the group was attempting, and if there was a similar attempt going on with the women. When he had started feeling Lucy's soul getting cloudy, he knew that Cana and Mira had spiked Lucy's drink with the same stuff Bickslow had been dumping into his own drink, not realizing that the poison dragon slayer's body saw a great majority of chemicals as _food_ , not drugs. So the truth serum was simply a nasty addition to his usual bleach and beer mixture. It had been hard not to grimace at the conflicting flavors, but he had held it together until Lucy had needed him.

 _You're going to feel like shit in the morning,_ he thought to her, knowing that she probably wouldn't remember his comments in the morning. Their telepathic connection was a special benefit to the Soul Link they had forged over their relationship, and was part of the reason that they had escaped notice from the guild. A good part of their conversations actually took place inside their heads, while everyone thought Lucy was reading and Cobra was skulking in the corner. It was their own private joke.

 _Erik…so you felt it. They put something in my drink. By the time I realized it, I couldn't do anything but hope I was able to keep my wits about me and limit the information I gave them._ Lucy's thought process was disjointed and fragmented, but she pulled herself together to respond to him.

He chuckled softly. _Cana and Bickslow both got some truth serum since you don't drink and I can't get drunk. She dosed you a bit too heavily. You'll sleep it off tonight, feel like shit in the morning, and we'll figure out how to repay them for it during the afternoon._

 _We're going to the cabin?_ In his arms Lucy yawned, and snuggled closer to him. It was rare that he simply invaded her personal space. Their relationship had always been defined by choices. Permission was asked, granted, or denied. Cobra had spent too long having his life dictated to him, first by the Tower's guards, then by Brain and Zero, and finally by the prison guards. For so much of his life, he had no choice in who was in his personal space, in what he did, and in where he went.

And Lucy could understand that. Brought up by her father, who had controlled every aspect of her life that he could, she had felt just as caged as he did. While unconventional at first, she had adapted quickly to his way of living, embracing it. At first it was just him taking off in the middle of the night, just to prove that he could, but after she tried it once, she found it freeing. Even their Soul Link was mutually forged, and either of them could prevent the other from accessing their thoughts and feelings if they wished. For them, everything was about choices and the ability to make them. Even if it was a simple thing, neither of them wanted to be denied the ability to have a say in their lives.

 _Yeah,_ he responded, brushing his lips against the top of her head where it rested on his shoulder. _Figured you probably didn't want to go to your apartment with the potential for Natsu break ins, and we both know that my apartment in town isn't worth spending any amount of time in._

 _I like our cabin_ , she thought hazily, transmitting foggy memories of the time they had spent there, slowly fixing it up as they had the time and money. _It's completely ours. And none of them know about it. Sometimes, when I go away, I just come here._

He smiled. _I know,_ he responded. _After the first time you stayed there while you were gone, I noticed that some of the stuff had been moved, and you had managed to make some headway in cleaning the bathroom. So whenever I know you're missing I stay away, to give you some space._

 _There were monster spiders in there_. Lucy's memory, altered by the drugs in her system, provided a comically exaggerated spider for his viewing pleasure. _I abandoned that attempt pretty quickly._

 _That was the linin closet_ , Cobra reminded her gently. _Remember? You made me clean it out because if one of them bit me, I'd enjoy it. While I did that, you were outside, yelling at the fire for not lighting._

 _Oh yeah_ , Lucy drawled lazily, beginning to fall asleep. _It rained that morning. My sneakers got soaked walking there. Kept Natsu from finding us._

Cobra snorted. Her tactic for keeping the salmon-haired slayer from finding out where their hideaway was simply included a false trail to the library. Since Natsu was permanently _banned_ from the building after an _unfortunate accident_ , she could go inside, and slip out a window after strategic lotion application. The unfamiliar scent was enough to get her out of town, and he wouldn't think of looking for her scent out there.

When he went to reply to her, he found her already asleep, her dreams taking on odd shapes and colors due to the drug Cana had used. Shaking his head, he almost pitied the card mage when Lucy woke in the morning. If there was one thing he had learned about the blonde, it was that her vengeance was stronger than anything he had ever seen before.

Lucy woke in the morning with a pounding head and a dry throat. When she tried to sit up, the world spun. A hand was at her shoulder instantly, steadying her and passing her a cup of tea. "Take a few sips," Erik's voice urged her. "It will help steady you."

Complying, she frowned at the bitter taste. But he was right. A few sips more, and her headache had subsided to a dull throb, and the room no longer spun. Now that she could think clearly, she remembered the events of the night before. "I'm going to kill them."

Her boyfriend raised an eyebrow. "What's the plan? I've got a score or two to settle myself. We might as well coordinate."

"Long, slow, and _painful_ ," Lucy said softly, taking another sip of the tea. "They tried to drug us both simply to get information."

"You know she would have used alcohol if she could have," Erik reminded her. "Truth serum was her last resort."

"If we wanted her to know, she would know," Lucy replied. "We'll go public when we choose to. Do you want to come up here and sit with me for a while?" She patted the empty space on her bed. "You didn't spend the night on the floor I hope."

Erik climbed up and hesitated for a moment. "No, I was in my own bed. But can I propose something?"

Whatever it was, he was keeping it from her. Wondering what it could be, Lucy nodded.

"I want us to trust each other a bit more," Erik said softly.

"I do trust you, Erik." Lucy said, wondering what he meant. She trusted him with her life, and for her to trust him _more_ would be impossible.

"Not like that…" he ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "Look, I know all the stuff we do is because of me, and my issues with needing to feel _free_ , but I want to try something. I know that sometimes you just want to touch me without asking first, that you want to reach out and hold me, or kiss me, or…anything. And I want that too. I want us to act like the couple that the others expect us to be. Not because of that. But because I feel safe with you, because I know that you won't take my choices away. I want to touch you without asking permission. I want to come up behind you and hug you. When I leave, I want to let you know so that you won't worry about me. I want to show you how much I love you with everything that I can, and stopping this whole asking permission thing will make it easier for both of us…I don't need to know that I'm free anymore. You're the one person on this earth that I trust completely and am willing to bind myself to if you'd have me."

"Are you sure?" she whispered, tentatively searching his soul to see if he was saying something to make her feel better. While she had appreciated the ability to make decisions and watch him learn to trust her when she allowed him the ability to do the same, Lucy had occasionally yearned for spontaneity, for the more conventional relationship she had thought she would end up in.

"Absolutely." And he meant it. His entire soul was filled with love and trust for her. Erik, her _Erik_ , had learned how to trust her, and more importantly to her, he had learned that with her, he could still be completely free while binding himself to her, just as she had learned that a bond itself could be seen as a shackle, but it could still function with the members retaining complete autonomy.

"I love you Erik," she whispered, leaning in for the first kiss in a year and a half that she hadn't asked permission for. "But you know that already, don't you?"

He hummed slightly as his lips met hers. When they separated, he leaned his forehead against hers and whispered: "Doesn't mean I don't love hearing it any less. I love you too."

 *****So...Cana and truth serum? Anyway, I had a really hard time thinking of a concept for this one, and then I realized that they had both felt as if their lives were being dictated to them. Choice would be important. And so would the ability to just pick up and leave from time to time. So I wanted to explore that type of relationship, and here it is.*****


	3. 3 Fairy Tale

**_Fairy Tale_**

He wasn't anything like the princes in the books her mother read to her before bed each night as a child. The first time she saw him, she was scared to death, almost died, and he hurt her friends. His armor was a bad attitude and instead of a horse, his animal companion was a giant purple snake. But when you looked underneath the underneath, he was actually a bit like the princes.

Once he stopped committing crimes, he was actually a good guy. He couldn't stand slavery and supported anyone who was trying to make their own decisions. Lending a hand came naturally, if he liked you that is. And since he didn't like just _anyone_ , to have his mark of approval meant you were something quite special. Very special indeed. But to the rest of the world, he was irritating, standoffish, blunt, and venomous. Yet, he was the closest friend you could ever have, and if he decided to watch your back, you'd be ensured the best effort possible.

But if you thought about it, she wasn't a princess either.

Sure, her spirits called her princess, and she certainly _looked_ the part. But it was kind of hard to ignore her temper, and her ability to kick people through walls. Add the skimpy clothes, her tendency to usually end up half naked after a fight, and her choice of companions, and the resemblances were pretty slim.

Yet she had something about her, some type of quality that drew others to her like a moth to a flame. Her heart was bigger than anyone else's, and very few people remained her enemies for long. She had a way of seeing past everything and into a person's true self, finding the good that was there like a light shining into the darkness. It was no wonder that her magic had its roots in the stars itself, and that she was friends with the Celestial Spirit King. Nobody had ever said a bad word about her, or at least nobody who had lived to tell the tale. Because of her personality, her friends and family were fiercely protective, to the point of wishing to chastise anyone for looking at her the wrong way. Still, they teased her, and frustrated her to no end, but she was still their family, and she'd fight just as hard to protect them as they would her.

When they got together, everyone was surprised. Even they were surprised. If anyone had been surveyed about who the two should have been paired with, it would have been their best friends: the bar maid and the pyromaniac. They couldn't really explain what brought them together either. It wasn't a common courtship. He insulted her, she kicked him into the wall, and five minutes later they were both laughing as they repaired the wall he dented. She put poison in his food, he asked for seconds, and she bragged about her recipe when he raved about it at the guild, even though the poison was her most carefully guarded secret. Of course, given his magic, he knew what it was, but he pretended not to know, and she pretended not to see him pretending. The farce made them both chuckle.

It was the quiet moments that they loved most though. He, because it offered him a break from the pandemonium that was their guild. She, because even though she thrived in the rambunctious atmosphere, she valued the peace of solitude just as much. Together they could sit in silence for hours, or just talk about everything and nothing. To them, it was the same. Just enjoying each other's company and learning about the other.

The day he asked her to marry him wasn't scripted. It wasn't even planned. They had just been sitting together and talking when the question just popped out. She stared at him for a moment, and he stared back, caught off guard just like she was. Then they laughed, and she said yes, and they went back to their friends and family, both afraid to face the music.

Her redheaded friend threatened him with a sword until she was promised the position of maid of honor to distract her. Promising the right to walk her down the aisle pacified their guild master, which put a lid on the majority of the guild's reactions. Coupled with threats of violence from the white haired barmaid if the two were not allowed to get married, and _have little red haired brown eyed babies_ , most of the guild simply accepted and began to plan.

He bought his former slave master and then guild master's support by promising best man. Bribing the guild's drunken card mage with the promise of an open bar made her subdue his fiancée's overprotective older brother figure before he could freeze him. Which in turn brought his stalker out into the open, giving him a few too many things to handle at that point. It was also necessary to remind him of his missing clothes.

However, the most difficult was her partner and his exceed. The two of them had to be pacified with what amounted to a written contract, signed by a member of the guild who had formerly been a member of one of the iterations of the Magic Council, stating that in no way was her impending marriage to disrupt their usual partnership. He was glad when she included the provision that she'd still be free to make her own decision about what jobs she would or wouldn't go on, but slightly irritated at the clause about fish that the exceed insisted upon. In his opinion, the feline troll could go get his own fish. But she smiled and laughed, even if the pair annoyed her, so he resigned himself to putting up with the pair and resolved to ask the resident rune mage to put up barriers around their residence, preventing unwelcome entry.

Their home wasn't a castle. It wasn't even a _house_ per say. Calling it a cabin would be being polite.

Calling it a shack would be accurate.

But the two of them fell in love with it, and set to work making it habitable. Together they fixed the rotten floorboards, put in new windows, installed the first plumbing that the little building had ever seen, and by the time the guild was ready to send them down the aisle, it was a quaint little one room domicile. Instead of going away for their honeymoon, they fed the guild six different rumors about destinations, got on a train, and jumped out a window once they were sure that the others weren't watching. After they snuck back to their house, they went to work again, laughing as they turned the one room house into two rooms plus a bathroom.

Renovations went on for years, hindered by the weather and their own schedules, often at the tender mercies of her partner's destructive habits. By the time they had their first child, the loft they had been sleeping in had been turned into a proper second floor, complete with two rooms and a second bathroom, and their stove was no longer next to their couch. When their third child was born, seven years later, there was a room waiting for her, as well as her own bathroom. Her siblings complained of course, but when their parents pointed out that they now had their own bathrooms as well, the mutterings died down.

They may not have been a prince or a princess, and their beginning might not have been a 'once upon a time'. The prince had been born a slave, and the princess ran away. At their first meeting, he nearly killed her best friend, and she beat his companion. In between there were definitely some dragons, some pretty nasty demons, a seven year gap, a prison sentence, and one particularly persistent flirt who happened to be one of her spirits. But in the end, as they sat and watched their children play, there was only one phrase that could be used to describe their ending.

 _And they all lived happily ever after_.

That was their fairy tale.

Fairy Tail.

 *****I struggled a bit with this one, trying to think of how Fairy Tale fit with Lucy and Cobra. And then when I was at work (which is actually where most of these were born), I started thinking about how these two did and didn't fit the typical fairy tale roles. And then this one went a lot smoother.*****


	4. 4 Glitter

**_Glitter_**

"Absolutely not." Erik stared down the five year old with the same ferocity as he stared down Natsu. As much as he tried to limit it, the man had been a bad influence on his daughter, and her stubbornness was as legendary as her mother's. The combination of "Uncle Natsu" and Lucy's personality was proving to be a handful.

"But don't you want Mommy's card to be _perfect_?" his daughter asked, the picture of innocence. She hadn't picked up on the fact that his magic allowed him to discern the notably less charitable motives behind her begging, and he was thankful for that. He needed all the advantages that he could get against her.

"Your mother banned that stuff from the house after the last incident, saying that it was the last time. I thought she got rid of it all too." Cobra distinctly remembered his wife collecting all of the offending items after the girls were asleep and making him go throw them in the guild dumpster, saying that she didn't want them to have any opportunity to get some when she wasn't paying attention.

"She did," the girl supplied with a shrug. "But when I told Uncle Natsu that Mommy would love it on her card, he helped me get some that she would like."

With a sigh, Erik resolved to murder the fire dragon slayer at the earliest possible moment. _Or maybe I'll just do the same thing when he and Lisanna finally have children. See how he likes it then_. Coming back to his daughter, he shook his head firmly. "Give it here. It took a month to get the stuff out of Bella's hair after the last incident."

"No!" she protested, and he prepared himself for a tantrum. She had mostly grown out of them, but every so often…Erik stopped his thought process as he heard the most alarming sound possible from his eldest. Much like her mother when angry, his daughter was prone to quick flashes of temper. However, he hadn't expected to hear her soul go quiet, much like Lucy's did seconds before some unsuspecting victim got kicked through a wall.

Hours later, Lucy slipped into the kitchen from the backdoor, figuring that her husband would be there, trying to work on dinner with their two daughters underfoot. When she saw the way the kitchen sparkled, she was surprised. _Maybe we're eating out tonight?_

Then she took a closer look at the way the room _sparkled_. Lucy sighed as she realized what had happened, and moved into the living room, where she could hear the vacuum running.

As she guessed, Erik was there, furiously vacuuming their faded carpet, worn from years of feet trampling it down, coupled with the destructive tendencies of their friends. What she didn't expect was to find him covered from head to toe in a mixture of pink and gold glitter.

Stifling a laugh, she took in the sight. Most of the room had already been cleaned, but the carpet and the man cleaning it seemed to be worst off. He heard her, and turned off the vacuum cleaner, turning to face her as he did.

"So, which one was it this time?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Ari," he grunted, running his hand through his hair. Glitter slowly fluttered down, and he groaned. "She was making you a card while Bella was napping, and your partner gave her _glitter_. Which reminds me, I'm either going to kill him or make sure he suffers when he decides to procreate. But anyway, she gave me the _look_."

It was impossible to hide her smile. Lucy knew that he could hear the chuckles she was suppressing, but it just wasn't possible to keep a straight face. Erik Heartfilia, formerly Cobra of the Oracion Seis, was the biggest softy when it came to his two daughters. She could only imagine Ari's beseeching face and how her husband caved. "So how did it get all over the living room?"

"Bella woke up and I needed to go up and check on her. By the time I got back down here, Ari was in the middle of mixing her own custom blend just for Mommy. The cap on the bottle was loose and…well, there you have it. We moved into the kitchen for the rest of the time, but the damage was already done in here. It's going to be months before the room recovers."

"I think I'm more concerned about _you_." Lucy teased, brushing her lips carefully across his cheek. "You're going to spend so much time thrashing Natsu once he gets a look at you tonight. Where are the girls?"

"Up in their rooms. Ari's reflecting on what she did, and Bella's playing with her toys. I was hoping that I'd be able to get dinner started before you got here." Erik sighed. "I guess even with older kids, you still run out of time."

Lucy chuckled. "Why don't you get upstairs and showered? I'll start dinner, and then we'll both tackle the living room together. After all, we're going to have to go back to the uncoordinated schedule of the newborn before we know it."

Nodding, Erik turned towards the stairs, but stopped dead in his tracks. "Wait, Lucy, did you say…"

She smiled. Even with his ability to hear her soul, she was still able to surprise him. "Wendy confirmed it for me this afternoon. It's a bit too early to announce, but we'll be a family of five in just under a year. Maybe this time it will be a boy, to help even the odds."

Paying no attention to the glitter that covered his body, Erik gathered his wife in his arms. Years into their marriage, and he still fell in love with her each and every day. "Even if it's another girl," he whispered into her ear as he held her. "I won't mind. Not if she's as beautiful as you are."

 *****Okay first things first. I struggled to name their children, and ended up picking semi-significant names.** ** _(Aqu)_** **Ari** ** _(us)_** **and Bella** ** _(donna)_** **.**

 **Secondly, this one was definitely inspired by work. When I was ~5... glitter = happiness. Now that I'm a bit older, and I work at a craft store, glitter = demonspawn. It gets EVERYWHERE. So I wrote about what would happen if Lucy and Cobra had to deal with their kids and glitter. Also, the thought of Natsu unknowingly providing the glitter was just too amusing to pass up.**

 **And thirdly...I need to finish** ** _Family_** **. Also, I need to figure out what I'm doing for** ** _Journey_** **...I'm a bit behind.*****


	5. 5 Rumors

_**Rumors**_

Lucy Heartfilia was no stranger to rumors. In fact, she was quite used to them, between her upbringing as an heiress and then her days as a member of the Fairy Tail guild. The number of rumors about her only seemed to increase as she spent more time with Natsu and her other teammates, and the growth in numbers was only rivaled by their growth in ridiculousness. For instance:

 _ **Rumor**_ **:** Lucy was involved in a love triangle with team-member Gray Fullbuster and guild mate Juvia Lockser.

 _ **Rumor:**_ Lucy was bankrolling Fairy Tail out of the Heartfilia fortune, which hadn't _actually_ been spent, but just hidden for her personal use.

 _ **Rumor:**_ Natsu Dragoneel was involved in a secret affair with Lucy while he openly enjoyed the affections of long-term friend Lisanna Strauss. The day when both women confronted each other would likely be stunning and destructive.

 _ **Rumor:**_ Lucy was collecting a dragon slayer harem, and was contemplating murdering Yukino to remove the other Celestial Wizard from the picture for the sole purpose of obtaining the full set of zodiac keys.

However, when Fairy Tail disbanded, and its members scattered to the four winds, the only member that didn't crop up in the rumor mill was Lucy. Everyone else showed up from time to time, even in false sightings, but the blonde Celestial Wizard remained hidden from the public eye. So little had been heard about her that it wasn't worth even speculating on _maybes_ or _perhaps_.

Of course, the moment she came back, she was immediately the subject of rumors. The last member of Team Natsu to return, and with no explanation for why she was late or where she had been, was obviously a favorite for a long time. Yet she said nothing, offered no stories, and simply picked up as she left off. Or tried to anyway.

It escaped nobody's notice that her skills had improved vastly over the year, putting her very, very close to Erza or Mirajane. She also tended to take more solo missions and put some distance between herself and Natsu. The rumor mill churned along with this new information, speculating.

 _ **Rumor:**_ Lucy had given up on Natsu, instead pursuing Gajeel Redfox. There was no comment from Levy McGarden, but there had been very little progress in that relationship.

 _ **Rumor:**_ Lucy was involved in a tryst with Laxus Dreyar. Was she attempting to regain social status by courting the man who had beaten a Wizard Saint and whose grandfather was perhaps one of the most striking masters in Fairy Tail's history, second only to the founding master?

 _ **Rumor:**_ Lucy had sacrificed something of great value to the Spirit King, and in return gained immeasurable power, but at the cost of an ever growing darkness.

However, the rumor mill kicked into overdrive when Cobra, formerly of the Oracian Seis, walked into Fairy Tail, was granted a guild stamp, and proceeded to take the seat next to her at the bar, knocking Natsu out with a single punch. Speculations flew furiously as to what their relationship might be.

 _ **Rumor:**_ Lucy had gone undercover in a criminal guild and managed to make Cobra see the light after his many years of violent crime. (That the man in question had been in _jail_ for over seven years and was released due to assistance in several critical situations seemed to be forgotten.)

 _ **Rumor:**_ Cobra had been released into Lucy's guardianship after his prison sentence was up, and he had sworn to protect her.

 _ **Rumor:**_ Lucy had been missing for a year because she was busy tracking down the Oracian Seis and returning them to the Magic Council's prison. Cobra had been released for his cooperation in the affair, and was currently scheming his revenge, so keeping the blonde close was necessary.

The pair in question seemed oblivious though, and that was worrisome enough. With Cobra's ability to read minds (he had given up attempting to correct them), the pair certainly knew everything that was being said. If they were behaving as usual, Lucy would have kicked so many people through walls that there would be many, many more windows in most of the buildings around Magnolia. Reports suggested that Natsu was cowering, waiting for the day when she would finally snap.

Yet, nothing could have prepared anyone for the day when the two of them walked into Fairy Tail together. That wasn't the problem, nor was it particularly troublesome. It was now a commonly accepted behavioral pattern for the pair. However, the parts of the situation that _were_ troublesome were the matching rings on their fingers and the faint, but noticeable mark on Lucy's neck.

That was the day that Lucy Heartfilia _**broke**_ the rumor mill.

 *****I don't have too much to say about this one. Managed to finish** ** _Family_** **last night, so I've only got** ** _Journey_** **left to write. For everyone else participating, you guys are awesome. Reading what you all post makes my day.*****


	6. 6 Family

**_Family_**

Erik smiled as he watched his wife bustle about the kitchen, putting everything just the way she wanted it. Not that she had much to arrange, since he had put everything away as close as he could remember to how her apartment had been set up. When she had asked where they would live, sometime in the two months between his proposal and the ceremony, he had cautiously told her about the house. It had been his pet project since he had first arrived in Magnolia, building his dream house. Somewhere along the way, as he drew closer and closer to the blonde that he could now call his wife, it had become _their_ dream house. Each time she complained about something in her apartment, or talked about what she wanted in her living space, he took note and did his best to create her ideal home. And somehow, oddly enough, the finished result was something he loved too, not just because he knew she would like it, but because they were so similar in tastes.

 _Wife_. He still couldn't believe it. Despite having proposed exactly eight weeks ago, and planning how best to manage it without running the risk of her teammates turning him into a scorched, frozen pile of chopped up dragon slayer, Erik had felt as if he was living in a dream, and would someday wake up. Unfortunately, that feeling was intimately familiar. As a slave in the Tower, and as a pawn of Brain, he had escaped into dreams that had sometimes felt like this. A few years with Brain had replaced them with dreams more violent in nature, but every once in a while he still dreamed of something like this. A house, a family. Something that made him feel safe and loved, instead of afraid and overwhelmed. Midnight's illusions, in the beginning of his training, had often been tested on the other former Oracion Seis. They too had given life to his deepest desires, only to vanish like smoke.

Eventually Brain helped his son fine tune the illusions to create nightmares. Erik didn't see the difference.

As if she could feel his eyes on her, Lucy turned around, smiling that brilliant smile of hers. "You know, when you said that you had built a house, I figured it would take some time to get everything set up the way we both liked it, but now that I'm here, I think it should be fine without any more work. It's a bit like you read my mind."

He chuckled slightly, enjoying their private little joke. "I started building it for me, and then somewhere along the way it had become ours. When I got to the point of furnishing it, it was simple enough to set things up in a way that you were familiar with. Are you ready for the tour now?" Erik had offered to show her around as he carried her over the threshold, but she had insisted on organizing the kitchen right at the start.

Lucy shook her head. "I want to discover it as I go. And we're done with the first floor right? Just the living room and kitchen here, plus the back deck?"

"And the half bath under the stairs," Erik pointed at the door from his chair. He had offered to help with the kitchen, but she had shoved him into the chair and told him to just keep her company as she organized. Not that she had ended up needing to move much around. "Why did the kitchen have to be done first thing though?" Even with his Soul Listening, he hadn't figured it out. Lucy had made a game out of seeing if she could hide things from him, and had actually managed several times, this being one of them.

Coming around the island, she moved toward him, and he had a flashback of the ceremony that morning as she had walked down the aisle on Capricorn's arm. Lucy was still wearing her dress, and even though he knew that it was custom for women to go all out with the dress, he thought her simple white sundress was perfect. Anything else would be overkill. He couldn't help but think about how lucky he was to have her in his life.

Settling into her own armchair across from his, Lucy replied: "It's my intention to make you dinner tonight, our first dinner as a married couple. So to save time and annoyance, I wanted to make sure that the kitchen was in order. You saved me a lot of hassle. Now we don't have to spend our precious three days of alone time unpacking and organizing. I'm packed for three days, and Virgo insisted that she would clean out my apartment for me, so we don't have to worry about that. She said she'd bring a bunch of my things tomorrow, and the rest the next day. Apparently, she's trying to make sure that the apartment still looks lived in, just in case Natsu or the others show up."

He snorted irritably. While he respected her friendship with her team, he would have preferred she chose friends who were more…respectful of boundaries. She had managed to convince Natsu that sharing a bed with her was a bad idea only through repeated, painful experiences. But that didn't stop him or the others from breaking and entering.

She sighed. "I know, they're going to be a problem. Once they find out where this place is, they'll all be breaking in here. Maybe I'll ask Freed if he could put some runes up to prevent them from entering."

Erik shook his head. "Already set. I asked Freed the day after I proposed. None of them can be here unless expressly invited. Even my team can't get in here unless they have permission, and that has to be granted each time anyone wants to come in."

Lucy raised her eyebrow. "That's a bit complicated…but at least Natsu won't raid my fridge, Grey won't read my novel, and Erza won't go through my underwear drawer." Pausing to consider the implications, she sighed. "I should have asked him to do that a long time ago for my apartment. Do you think Laxus told him yet?"

Shrugging, Erik leaned back in his chair. "Laxus told the team to meet him at the station at one. I don't know when he'll tell them that I'm not coming, and that his _emergency mission_ is actually a ruse to give us a three day honeymoon. How did you fix things with Levy?"

With a grin, Lucy said: "She and Wendy are heading to Cait Shelter. They told the guild that Wendy wanted to see her old guild hall, but she only wanted Levy and I to go. It took some convincing, but they were able to leave without a problem. Actually, we 'left' the guild hall and doubled back to my apartment to get ready. By the way, if you don't mind me asking, why didn't you tell Jellal about the ceremony? I figured he and the rest of the former Crime Sorciere would be invited. Not to mention your team, since they have a grain of sense in their minds."

Snorting, Erik shook his head. "Sorano and Meredy would have leaked it to Mira, and that would have blown everything. Sawyer and Richard are out looking for Richard's brother…I guess they didn't get the message in time. Macbeth would have likely slept through it, and he's off on a mission with Gajeel right now anyway. Master's orders, so it's probably trying to get information on Zeref. And Jellal…I would have asked him, but I didn't want to put him in a position where he'd have to lie to Erza. He's hopeless at that, so I didn't even bother. The Raijinshu…it was hard enough to get Laxus there without Mira finding out. If _all_ of them had been missing…I shudder to think of what would happen.

"She's going to kill us," Lucy muttered. "All of them are going to kill us. Well, not your team. They're going to be fine. Although Ever might be a bit miffed that she didn't have time to pack for a vacation and not an emergency mission. But my team? We're going to be dead."

"Not _we_ ," Erik corrected. "Me. _I'm_ going to be dead. Because in their eyes, you're in need of protecting from big, bad, Cobra. Remember when they first caught us dating?"

Lucy groaned. "So we've got all of six people who won't want to kill us. Great. Well then, that puts a damper on the three days off. Why don't we go explore the second floor? I need to think about something else before I contemplate running to Sabertooth and begging for asylum."

"Not going to work," Erik said as he stood. "Yukino is Sorano's younger sister, remember? Since those two reunited, you couldn't get them to fight each other even if it was to save their lives. If Sorano demanded us back, Yukino would hand us over in a heartbeat. And Sting would dangle me in front of Natsu like a carrot before a rabbit for a bit before he threw me to the wolves. That is, unless it was Erza asking. Then he'd shove me at her and run for the wind."

Taking her hand, he guided her up the stairs, anxious to put the troubling thoughts behind him. He had taken special pains with the second floor, and was hoping that she'd like them.

He wasn't disappointed. When Lucy arrived on the second floor landing, she gasped, and her soul sang almost as loud as when he had proposed to her. "Erik, how long did this take you?"

"A week or so," he replied honestly, a smile tugging at his lips. "I had to ask Sorano for her help with the constellations. She said that she'd find a way for me to repay her." But it was worth the time and effort it had taken to put the constellations on the ceiling for her, combined with the desk where he had carved tiny replicas of her keys around the outside edge. The open space on the second floor was part office, part family room, but he knew that she would love it. It was a perfect space for her to work on her novel while he read or simply relaxed.

"I can't wait until Virgo brings my novel over," Lucy said excitedly, caressing the desk. "Did you do these carvings yourself?"

"Bickslow taught me how to do them a while ago, and I though you would like it."

Lucy wandered over to the doors on the far side of the landing. "What are these?"

"Empty rooms, right now." Erik said with a shrug. "I didn't know what you'd want to use them for, so I left them as blank canvases. They're connected by a shared bathroom. Our room's opposite the stairs."

With a shy grin on her face, Lucy moved towards the door he indicated. "Want to check it out together?" she murmured, blushing slightly.

He felt his heart leap, but didn't need her to repeat her question.

* * *

That evening, after the couple had washed the dinner dishes together in a companionable silence, they lounged on the back deck, listening to the sounds of the woods that surrounded their house. Lucy was the one to break the silence first.

"When we have kids, we should put a swing in that tree over there," she said, pointing. "That is, if you want kids even."

Hearing the nervous tremor in her soul, he smiled reassuringly. "When I was in the Tower…a family was what I wanted most. Friends and a family. I've got the friends, and I've already begun my family. We'll have kids, if you want them."

Her smile was brighter than the sunset that shone above them. "Good. I hoped you wouldn't mind too much. It wasn't something that we really had talked about, but I always wanted a big family. When I was growing up, I was always lonely, especially after my mom died. I had this doll, and I used to pretend she was my little sister. We did all sorts of stuff together…I don't know what happened to her though."

Erik grinned. "Doesn't that make you a bad big sis?" he teased. "What kind of mother would that make you?"

Lucy glared at him. "I've now had years of practice, looking after Natsu without murdering him. Kids will be easy. Plus, I've been a big sister to Wendy, and helped Bisca and Alzack with Asuka, so I've got a lot more practice."

Shifting so he could pull her into his lap, Erik wrapped his arms around her. "I know, I know. It was just me teasing you. You're going to be a great mom when we decide to have kids."

"That's if we live that long," Lucy muttered, resting her head against his chest. "I think Laxus will be too busy laughing at the situation we're in to be much of a help. He's the only one Erza would think twice about rushing headlong against." At her husband's indignant noise, she kissed his nose. "Hun, you're the one who supposedly _defiled my honor_. Remember?"

He sighed. "Why does our guild have so many people who could very easily be confused with escaped asylum patients?"

"Because we're Fairy Tail," Lucy said simply, snuggling closer. "We're all each other's family. We look after each other, no matter what."

* * *

Lucy gripped her husband's hand nervously as they approached the guild doors. He had told her that Laxus and the Raijinshu had already returned, as well as Levy and Wendy. Knowing that Team Natsu was about to be anxious to know where she was, the blonde knew that she had to show her face at the guild. And she didn't want to hide the fact that they were married.

But at the same time, she wouldn't mind not having to deal with the inevitable fallout.

"Are you ready for this?" she muttered, placing her free hand on her keys. _First call out Loke, to blind them. Then immediately Aries, to shield us with her wool wall, then…_

"Stop planning," Erik said softly. "It will be fine. Makarov won't let them kill me. And my team is most likely interested in keeping me alive."

"If you say so," she murmured. "Any thoughts on who will put it together first?"

Erik listened for a moment. "Gajeel and Midnight are back, and Gajeel suspects something about Levy's trip. He'll probably be able to smell either the rings, or that we're now living together. I don't know if he'll rat us out though. My bet's on Bickslow though. He's been plotting ways to embarrass us for the whole morning. Ever's slightly peeved that she wasn't invited to the wedding too, so it might be her."

With a sigh, Lucy shrugged. "Well, we might as well get it over with. On the count of three?"

When they pushed open the doors, the guild chatter died down just as long as it took for them to be identified, and then business as usual commenced. That is, until Bickslow leaned over the second floor railing and shouted: "How was the honeymoon, lovebirds?"

Then all hell broke loose.

Slipping into her fighting stance, Lucy gripped Loke's key, ready to call him out the instance the first attack was launched. Feeling Erik place his back against hers, she knew that he was ready to defend himself as well.

Natsu and Erza were first to reach them, Erza with her sword pointed at Erik's throat. "Lucy, is this the man that defiled you?"

"Hey Luce, did snakebrain hurt you at all?"

 _At least they're asking questions first_ , Lucy thought as the guild surrounded them. But before anyone else could say anything, Laxus pushed his way through, Mira trailing in his wake.

"Before you guys get all worked up about this, just listen for a moment. They got married three days ago and asked Levy, Wendy, and I to cover for them. I know all of you probably wanted to be involved with the wedding, but the two of them wanted it small and quiet. So just remember that they wanted this and don't get on their case about it." Levelling Natsu, Erza, and Grey with a glare, he added: "And nobody better hurt either of them for stupid reasons."

The Raijinshu came up and flanked Laxus, and Erza put away her sword, regretfully. "Lucy, is this what you wanted?" she asked, and Lucy was happy to see Jellal coming up behind her. _Hopefully he can keep her from murdering us._

"I wouldn't have said yes if he wasn't the man I loved with all my heart," Lucy said, reaching for Erik's hand and squeezing it. "Please, don't be offended that we didn't tell you guys until after it happened. We just wanted something quiet."

Erza stepped forward and pulled Lucy into a hug, crushing her against her armored chest. "If you're happy, then we're happy for you," she said as Lucy struggled to breath. When Erik finally plucked her out of the redhead's grasp, Lucy smiled at her teammate.

"You don't know how much that means to me," she said, turning to look at her other teammates. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys, but I wasn't sure how you'd react."

Grey grimaced, but he nodded. "As long as you're happy," he said, stepping forward to give her a quick hug and then reaching out to shake Erik's hand. "Congratulations man. Remember, you hurt her and you deal with us."

To his benefit, Erik didn't make a snarky comment in return. "Thanks," he said roughly. "I know she can kick my ass if she ever has any complaints. If she doesn't, then I know everyone here will do it for her."

Natsu, who had stayed surprisingly quiet throughout the entire process, stepped forward. "Luce…" he began. "Nothing's going to change, right?"

Exchanging looks with Erik, Lucy gave him a hug. "I'll still go on missions with you, but maybe not all the time. And you can't break into our house like you did my apartment. Other than that, I'll still be your friend and occasional mission partner. But I'll also go out with Erik sometimes, or others, just like I have been doing."

For a moment, he looked downhearted, but his trademark grin reappeared. "Fight me Cobra!" he called, and Lucy groaned. Thankfully, a giant hand smashing down on him from above squashed his fervor.

"Okay brats, that's enough nitpicking. Why don't we celebrate instead?" Makarov was perched on the second floor railing, his hand extended to pin Natsu. Amid cheers from the guild, Mira practically teleported to the bar, with Cana not too far behind her. Breaking out into boisterous cheers, the guild broke into small groups, with a steady stream of congratulations coming by the table Erik and Lucy had chosen, with their teams joining them.

Looking around at the busy guild, Lucy couldn't help but smile. As she tucked herself into Erik's side, she knew for certain that she was surrounded by family. They may not have been blood related, but to her and Erik, they were the only family that was worth having.

 *****So, this one actually began as the end of** ** _Rumors_** **. But then I thought that it would be too long, and would better fit** ** _Family_** **instead. It's not too crazy or funny, but I wanted to show that for them, the little things, the quiet, is what they value. Also, not being killed by overprotective sibling figures.**

 **Still need to write** ** _Journey_** **...life keeps getting in the way apparently.*****


	7. 7 Journey

**_Journey_**

The once bright apartment was dark. All of the shades were drawn, and the lights were off. It was silent, with the only sound being the choked breathing of the occupant.

Lucy Heatfilia was almost unrecognizable. Her hair was a scruffy rat's nest, she wore sweatpants and a tattered tank top, and the skin around her collarbone was scratched raw in a few places. The brown eyes that had shone brightly were dull. It may have been two weeks since the desperate battle against Tartarus, but she looked as if the war was still going on.

Loke watched silently from the Spirit World, knowing that nothing he could do or say would help the girl now. He and Virgo had both opened their gates, seeking to help their master, but seeing them had only made her despair worse. Knowing what she was going through made it even more difficult for him. Fairy Tail was his guild too, and now it was gone.

It just didn't seem _fair_. Lucy was probably the kindest person he knew, given the number of people who were former enemies turned allies, and she had already gone through plenty in her life. But fate kept dealing her a crappy hand. First her mother's passing, then the hardening of her father's heart. When she had finally found happiness in Fairy Tail, the incident with Phantom Lord disturbed her peace. With things settled, and the eventual, gradual steps towards reconciliation with her father, he had hoped that it was all over, but it was only the beginning. Seven years trapped on Tenrou, after nearly dying time after time, only to return and find that her father had passed away a month before. He and the others had watched as she discovered what her father had done, watched her grieve the loss of what could have been a relationship with her only living memory. But that time, they had been there for her.

Just like they had been there during the aftermath of the Eclipse Gate affair, ready to respond to every nightmare, each time she panicked because she saw a picture of the present-era Rogue in _Sorcerer's Weekly_ …they were there, taking turns by her side. It should have been over then.

Nothing could have prepared them for Tartarus. While the fight against Tartarus would have been hellish enough, the sacrifice that Lucy had been forced to wake had devastated each and every one of them. Her grief and guilt poured through their bonds, as well as her fear that it would happen again. No matter how much any of them assured her, she wouldn't believe them. He had made the decision to give her some space, knowing that the guild would take care of her, knowing that Fairy Tail always took care of their own.

He had been shocked by Makarov's announcement, shocked and devastated himself and not just for Lucy's sake. Fairy Tail had taken him in, given him a family in what he thought were his final days. Losing them, even though he was now Lucy's…it was like losing a part of himself. Absently, he rubbed his back, where the guild's emblem still rested. It seemed like a cruel fate for Lucy, who had been relieved by the presence of her guild mark after the Eclipse Gate affair, to continue to bear the guild mark when the guild had disbanded. Every time her eyes fell on it, the trembling intensified and the tears began to drip down her cheeks.

Seeing any of them, even Cancer, made it worse for her. Lucy would fight them if they tried to hold her, ignore them if they tried to talk with her, and would occasionally claw at the mark of Aquarius that now rested across her chest. They stopped her at that point, no matter how much she fought, but they could only sit and watch helplessly the rest of the time.

"Natsu," he whispered as he watched his master, leaning up against her bed like a discarded doll. "Why did you go?" He had seen the note, read it while Lucy was sleeping the night she had run out of her apartment, searching for her partner, who was long gone. He had carried her back after she collapsed in the streets, still calling out for Natsu and Happy. The letter had been clutched in her hand, he pried it out after she was asleep. Loke had waited until the morning to pass on the message about the guild's disbanding. Erza had brought the news, clearly heart broken. But nothing could have eased the pain of the former Fairy Tail members leaving one by one.

A week later, she still hadn't left her apartment. The stream of departing visitors had dwindled four days ago, and Loke wasn't sure when Lucy had last slept for more than an hour or two. She had barely eaten, and drank only when prompted. Most of the time she sat mostly still, moving only when absolutely necessary, crying sometimes, so silently that he couldn't tell unless the tears were dripping down her face.

Suddenly, movement caught his eye, and he saw her standing, shakily at first, but regaining her balance quickly enough. Darting about her room, she pulled out a bag and began methodically packing her clothing, systematically emptying her drawers. Torn between wanting to ask what was going on, and waiting a little and seeing what she did.

The rest of her spirits gathered slowly with him as he watched her pack the important items in her apartment. A few items that wouldn't fit into her bag were placed in a pile on her table, and Virgo looked at Loke for permission as the blonde chanted the familiar incantation. At his nod, she left their world and appeared next to Lucy with her trademark phrase. After conversing for a while, Virgo collected the items laid out and returned to the Spirit World.

"Princess said she's leaving," the maid spirit said. It was unnecessary, seeing as how the others had been watching through the entire conversation. "She says she can't stay here anymore."

"Let her go," Loke said heavily. While he wasn't sure where she was going or what she would do, anything was better than sitting in her apartment like a dead person. He was willing to take any improvement in her situation. They would always be by her side, ready to step in and help her the minute she needed it.

He didn't know it yet, but the steps she took as she left her apartment for the last time would set her on a journey that would prove to be the longest in her life. The physical portion of her journey would last just over a year, but the emotional journey would take far longer and demand far more of her. It would be a long road, filled with pain, and anger, but made easier by new friends and old companions. And in the end, she would find herself at home.

 _Ten Years Later_

"Mum, Leander's eating nightshade berries!" At the shout from her oldest, Lucy whipped about, spurred into action. While they had planted several varieties of poisonous plants in their garden, the children had all been warned about the dangers of eating them. Only she and Erik could safely ingest the plants, and both their daughters stayed well away from the section they had named "Daddy's corner". She had thought her son knew as well, but apparently not.

Reaching the back deck, she vaulted over the railing and sped towards the garden. As she approached the garden, she saw Bella and Ari clustered at the gate that led to Erik's private section. Shoving them out of the way, she dropped to her knees next to her four year old son, who was happily picking berries and shoving them in his mouth.

"Leander, stop eating those at once!" Lucy hissed, slapping the berries out of his hand. Torn between rushing him straight to Wendy and monitoring him for symptoms until her husband got home, she scooped him up and hurried back towards the house. Bella and Ari trailed behind, for once silent. _Thank Mavis that Erik's due home by tonight. He'll be able to help me with Leander_.

As she deposited her son on the couch and sent her daughters upstairs to their room, Lucy felt her husband's concern through their Soul Bond. He was closer than she expected, and the thought reassured her. Throughout the years they had their rough spots, but once they worked through them, not even Zeref himself could come between them and live. It had taken them a long time to reach this point, but Lucy knew where the journey she had set out on after the guild was disbanded led her.

It lead her home.

 *****So, this is what I came up with. It's actually the prologue for the CoLu chapter story that I'm just beginning to work on right now. The ending's a bit tentative since I haven't finished it, but it at least ties in with** ** _Glitter_** **.**

 **I have to say, it's been wonderful reading everything that you guys have been writing, and I absolutely have been astounded by the reviews I've gotten. When the week began, there were some things going on in my personal life that made me wonder if I could finish the week out, especially with needing to write the last two sections, but between my personal issues being resolved nicely and seeing everyone's wonderful reviews and stories, I have been so happy all week. Thank you everyone, and I can't wait to see what we all work on after this.*****


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